The hard drive in my S2 recently started the GSOD-reboot loop. As it is a 1TB with a lot of recordings I want to keep, I intend (if I can) to do a backup onto a new 1TB.

Earlier today I took the drive out of the Tivo, connected it to my PC, and ran WinMFS just to test if the HD controller was working. (I ran SMART on the drive a few days ago and it reported back as fine.) An interesting thing happened with WinMFS: although the program recognized the drive as being connected, MFSInfo reported that it was "Not a TIVO drive". When I ran "View Drive Information," the lines where the Tivo Software and Model Numbers should be were blank. This leads me to think that somehow the TIVO software has become corrupted, and that I would probably need to restore the software before I could do a clone of the dying drive to the new drive.

So here are my questions: I have a virgin 6.2 kernel I DL'd from here. Can I copy this kernel (using WinMFS>Tools>Restore Tivo Drive) to "restore" the OS on the dying drive? If I try this, will I inadvertently wipe my recordings? Any help is more appreciated than you know, and thanks for bearing with this longer post.

STOP! If you could run Kick Start 54 then the boot page is/was fine. There is something funky about the PC setup. Download and burn the MFSTools boot CD. Unplug or remove all Hard Disk drives from the PC. Then when you get the PC to boot to the Linux command line then power off the PC and add the TiVo drive boot to the command prompt and type in cat /proc/partitions (all lower case) report back the information returned.

Now some information about the PC is needed what HD controller are you using.

Do you have another hard drive 1TB or larger that you can binary copy this drive to? It would be best to work with a copy. Read about using dd_rescue.

For now download the drives manufactures "run from CD" diagnostics. What brand and model is the drive? you should be able to find the diagnostics on the drive manufactures web page search for the model.

Thank you for your reply, Unitron. My S2 is a TCD240040, obviously upgraded to a 1 TB drive.

HomeUser: I ran WD's diagnostic as you suggested, and it wouldn't even let me get past the first SMART test. To paraphrase the program results, "One or more current values are below threshold". I am fairly certain the PCB is either totally or partially fried; there are scorch marks on one of the chips. (The drive is a WD10EADS.)

As a hail-Mary, I'm trying to do a clone now through WinMFS. It's currently attempting to copy Partition 7... waiting to see what happens next...

Thank you for your reply, Unitron. My S2 is a TCD240040, obviously upgraded to a 1 TB drive.

HomeUser: I ran WD's diagnostic as you suggested, and it wouldn't even let me get past the first SMART test. To paraphrase the program results, "One or more current values are below threshold". I am fairly certain the PCB is either totally or partially fried; there are scorch marks on one of the chips. (The drive is a WD10EADS.)

As a hail-Mary, I'm trying to do a clone now through WinMFS. It's currently attempting to copy Partition 7... waiting to see what happens next...

If you have another 1TB or larger drive you can just do a byte for byte copy if necessary, with

dd_rescue

and adjust some of its parameters to increase your chances of success if WinMFS fails you.

Thank you for your reply, Unitron. My S2 is a TCD240040, obviously upgraded to a 1 TB drive.

HomeUser: I ran WD's diagnostic as you suggested, and it wouldn't even let me get past the first SMART test. To paraphrase the program results, "One or more current values are below threshold". I am fairly certain the PCB is either totally or partially fried; there are scorch marks on one of the chips. (The drive is a WD10EADS.)

As a hail-Mary, I'm trying to do a clone now through WinMFS. It's currently attempting to copy Partition 7... waiting to see what happens next...

If you have to restart the copy and there is space available on the new drive you might increase the swap partition to 1024 or at least 512 the extra space is wasted because the Series 2 TiVo drives can only be expanded once. Do it using the MFSLive boot CD on the MFSLive web site there is an Interactive Command Generator to help you with the command.

Thank you for your reply, Unitron. My S2 is a TCD240040, obviously upgraded to a 1 TB drive.

HomeUser: I ran WD's diagnostic as you suggested, and it wouldn't even let me get past the first SMART test. To paraphrase the program results, "One or more current values are below threshold". I am fairly certain the PCB is either totally or partially fried; there are scorch marks on one of the chips. (The drive is a WD10EADS.)

As a hail-Mary, I'm trying to do a clone now through WinMFS. It's currently attempting to copy Partition 7... waiting to see what happens next...

As I sit here and wait for dd_rescue to run, I want to thank both of you again for your help. If I could buy you both a drink of your choice I would.

Unitron: I became impatient with WinMFS and stopped the clone. In doing so, an interesting thing happened. When I checked the partitions on the new drive in MFSlive, it showed that 10 of the 15 partitions from the failing drive actually transferred to the new drive. (I probably should have been more patient, since it seems the clone was close to finishing.) So there's some hope that the clone I'm doing right now in dd_rescue will, when it eventually finishes, work.

HomeUser: Fortunately the Tivo MB is fine. The burnt chip was on the PCB of the drive. Over the last few hours I've learned that the burnt chip problem is a common one on the WD drive I have (WD10EADS.)

Of course, I have another (probably terribly obvious) question. How will I know when dd_rescue is finished? Right now all I'm getting are screens after screens of data (I'm running in text mode) and no sense at all of how far along the program is. (If it matters, I'm transferring from a 1TB to a 1TB and dd_rescue has been running for a little over two hours now.) Will the program give me a clear signal that it's finished, or will it simply "freeze" (as MFSInfo did) when it finishes?

As I sit here and wait for dd_rescue to run, I want to thank both of you again for your help. If I could buy you both a drink of your choice I would.

Unitron: I became impatient with WinMFS and stopped the clone. In doing so, an interesting thing happened. When I checked the partitions on the new drive in MFSlive, it showed that 10 of the 15 partitions from the failing drive actually transferred to the new drive. (I probably should have been more patient, since it seems the clone was close to finishing.) So there's some hope that the clone I'm doing right now in dd_rescue will, when it eventually finishes, work.

HomeUser: Fortunately the Tivo MB is fine. The burnt chip was on the PCB of the drive. Over the last few hours I've learned that the burnt chip problem is a common one on the WD drive I have (WD10EADS.)

Of course, I have another (probably terribly obvious) question. How will I know when dd_rescue is finished? Right now all I'm getting are screens after screens of data (I'm running in text mode) and no sense at all of how far along the program is. (If it matters, I'm transferring from a 1TB to a 1TB and dd_rescue has been running for a little over two hours now.) Will the program give me a clear signal that it's finished, or will it simply "freeze" (as MFSInfo did) when it finishes?

I'm assuming you're running

dd_rescue

off of the MFS Live cd

I hope I remembered to tell you to run

dd_rescue -v

(that's the verbose switch, shows a constant stream of text about what it's doing)

It'll probably end with an EOF (end of file) message, which means it reached the end of the source drive, which, to it, is a file (in Unix-ish stuff, everything's a file).

If the screen goes blank, tap the space bar.

When it finishes

pdisk -l

(that's a lower case L)

should show you the partition maps for both drives.

It might choke on the cd drive, and it won't show anything partition-wise for a DOS/Windows-type drive.

Unitron: I called WD and it is still under warranty... BUT (and you could probably just feel that this was coming,) WD will not simply replace the PCB on the drive and ship it back. They will only send a "new" drive. Of course, if I wanted to use one of their partner DR companies and spend $350 to get my drive back, I'm welcome to do that (at least that's what the rep on the phone said.)

HomeUser: I hope (sincerely) that your 12 hour estimate is correct, because dd_rescue has been running for seven and a half hours now...

Unitron: I called WD and it is still under warranty... BUT (and you could probably just feel that this was coming,) WD will not simply replace the PCB on the drive and ship it back. They will only send a "new" drive. Of course, if I wanted to use one of their partner DR companies and spend $350 to get my drive back, I'm welcome to do that (at least that's what the rep on the phone said.)

HomeUser: I hope (sincerely) that your 12 hour estimate is correct, because dd_rescue has been running for seven and a half hours now...

Yeah, but once you get your data off onto another drive (and I don't think the data recovery companies know how to recover TiVo stuff anyway, just Windows or Mac files), you don't need that drive anymore, and WD owes you a 1TB drive (which you can slap into a PC running Desktop and store shows on).

The last time I copied drives using dd_rescue. I recall I started the transfer sometime in the evening around 9PM I let it run over-nite was not finished when I went to work in the morning so the copy finished somewhere between 8AM and 6PM (11 - 21 hours) and that was a 750G IDE the time will be affected by the number of re-reads needed.

Yeah, but once you get your data off onto another drive (and I don't think the data recovery companies know how to recover TiVo stuff anyway, just Windows or Mac files), you don't need that drive anymore, and WD owes you a 1TB drive (which you can slap into a PC running Desktop and store shows on).

HomeUser: As I write this, dd_rescue has entered it's twentieth hour of running. What's interesting is that it does not seem to be copying anything from drive to drive--all I've gotten is screen after screen of bad sector information. I'm hoping to see something that indicates that files are being copied soon...

Actually, that leads to a good question. How does the program indicate that it's copying files?

dd_rescue does not copy files the program copies binary sectors making a bit by bit image of the original drive (containing the files). Most copy programs will stop copying at the first error dd_rescue tries several times then moves on to the next sector.

If your seeing bad sector information then the program is still running usually the bad sectors are grouped together so you will see a lot of the errors all at once hopefully the errors will stop and the copy will continue. Because the re-reads take longer the time to copy will also. I would let the copy run for at least another 12 hrs depending on how much you want the data.

When the program is done you will see the MFSLive command prompt again and if I recall a message about the size of data transferred.

HomeUser: As I write this, dd_rescue has entered it's twentieth hour of running. What's interesting is that it does not seem to be copying anything from drive to drive--all I've gotten is screen after screen of bad sector information. I'm hoping to see something that indicates that files are being copied soon...

Actually, that leads to a good question. How does the program indicate that it's copying files?

"I'm hoping to see something that indicates that files are being copied soon..."

You won't exactly, even if it is, but I think you need to type

CTRL+C

to interupt it and get it to stop. We'll take a different approach.

"How does the program indicate that it's copying files?"

Actually it doesn't.

It's not set up to copy files, it copies the first x number of bytes and writes them to the corresponding location on the target drive.

Then it does it again, with the next x number of bytes.

If those bytes are a file, or part of one, eventually you have files copied.

If those bytes are a bunch of zeros, then it copies and writes zeros.

(which is why one should be very careful about using /dev/zero with

dd

or any of its derivitives)

If they're goobledygook, then that's what gets read from the source and written to the target.

And if those bytes are stuff like partition boundaries and boot records, it copies them as well, which is what lets it "Xerox" drives regardless of operating system or file format.

To it, the entire drive is a file, although, if desired, you can set it to only read part of that file--any part you can provide a starting address and length for.

find a man page for

dd_rescue

and learn how to set it to copy only 512 bytes at a time, with a fallback to 1 byte.

Assuming both drives have the same LBA number, also learn how to make the program work in reverse,i.e., start at the end of the drives and work towards the front.

Then wrap paper towel around the bad drive after it's cooled, and stick it in the freezer overnight.

The paper towel will let you pick it up the next day without losing skin and will keep humidity from condensing on it.

You'll need to slip the towel off of it before applying electricity, because at that point you don't want insulation.

You might even turn the drive upside down to place the flat top on something that can be a heatsink, like block of metal or marble.

Then you try to run

dd_rescue

in reverse, but only if the LBA numbers match, or things won't be in the right place,

and you run it taking very small nips at the source.

If it doesn't get it the first time it goes back and tries again.

Doing so in smaller samples increases the chance of getting a good read.

Having had to have done this once, I can assure you it will take forever, 24 to 48 hours at that low speed.

But having done it once successfully, I can recommend it if the stuff on there needs saving badly enough.

The nice thing about working backwards is that it'll probably get a bunch of sectors copied before it has to slow down and retry a lot.

You should probably find a way to help keep the temperature of the source drive down throughout the procedure, like a fan blowing straight on it, maybe put a bowl of ice behind the fan for it to pull cool air from and change out the bowl when it melts (and do not let it spill near all of that exposed electronic and electrical gear)

If the backwards copy gets a lot of the drive copied, we might be able to cheat to get the rest, but that's down the road and complicated.

Unitron and HomeUser, this is outstanding information. I can't say thanks enough.

I've decided to approach this using both strategies. Right now, I'm an hour and a half away from the 24 hour mark; I'll let the program run for the next 12 to see where it goes. If the program is still processing bad sectors, I'll stop it there completely, get a decent night's sleep, and pick it up again using the 512/1 byte, run-in-reverse option.

Unitron: I actually have had a fan blowing on both drives since this all started, and even after 24 hours they're both surprisingly cool to the touch. I guess the WD Green series (which I've always thought was a cheap way for WD to force consumers to use a slower rpm drive) do have one strong point.

Unitron and HomeUser, this is outstanding information. I can't say thanks enough.

I've decided to approach this using both strategies. Right now, I'm an hour and a half away from the 24 hour mark; I'll let the program run for the next 12 to see where it goes. If the program is still processing bad sectors, I'll stop it there completely, get a decent night's sleep, and pick it up again using the 512/1 byte, run-in-reverse option.

Unitron: I actually have had a fan blowing on both drives since this all started, and even after 24 hours they're both surprisingly cool to the touch. I guess the WD Green series (which I've always thought was a cheap way for WD to force consumers to use a slower rpm drive) do have one strong point.

5200, or 5600, or 5800 PRM is fast enough for a TiVo drive, so anything faster just generates unneccessary heat.

Note the sector values
You could abort the process as untron suggested then copy the sectors in reverse order starting at the end
some math will be required to compute the offset if the drives are not exactly the same.

Note the sector values
You could abort the process as untron suggested then copy the sectors in reverse order starting at the end
some math will be required to compute the offset if the drives are not exactly the same.

I want to thank you both again for all of your help these last few days. I truly appreciate all of your input more than you can imagine.

An update: at hour 45 and a half, I simply stopped dd_rescue altogether. The only sector information I noticed had changed in nearly two days was the number of bad sectors on the old drive. Upon stopping the program, I ran pdisk -l /dev/sdb to see if anything had transferred, and the program reported that all 15 partitions had been moved. (/dev/sda and /dev/sdb reported the same number of partitions, but I didn't copy the data figures to determine if the partitions on sdb were mathematically identical to those on sda.) Thinking that the new drive had to have been at least partially cloned, I put it in the Tivo, started it up, and sure enough--Welcome, Powering Up--Almost There--GSOD--reboot. Again and again and again.

At this point, after three days of trying to get the old drive back, I need (for sanity's sake) to stop trying. I'm going to wait until each of the drives, and the computer I was using to do the recovery, cool down...about three or four days...before I try again. The next attempt is the deal-breaker: if I can't get the information off the dying 1TB, and can't get the new 1TB to work in the Tivo, I'm simply going to clone the image of my 500GB drive (my first Tivo upgrade) to the new 1TB and admit temporary defeat. An unbelievable amount of information, including 76 episodes of a television series that will probably NEVER see the light of day on DVD because of Dick Wolf's licensing nonsense, will be lost, but I guess it serves me right for not actually backing up an image of the drive while it was working.

After three days, I'm entitled to a rant I think you'll both appreciate. One thing that sucks about this situation is that I'm actually adept with hardware and could EASILY (really, really EASILY) replace the PCB on the drive...IF the PCB for my drive didn't cost $150 dollars. I swear to God, hard drive manufacturers have their consumers by the round, dangling objects. I know there's nothing mechanically wrong with the drive besides its age. If i could replace the board it would work again, even if I only ran it for the few hours it would take to clone the drive via WinMFS--but WD "won't replace parts." After all, why replace parts when you can just force people to buy new drives, right? Locking the market in this way lets third-party distributors charge a premium for replacement PCBs. Of course, in three years' time, the PCB for my drive will probably cost about 40 bucks...but then that means waiting three years to clone the drive. Which sucks. Period.

(Actually, come to think of it... my electric bill is going to suck next month, too.)

For now, I need to sleep, but I really want to thank you both again for all of the help. I'll be back at the end of the week if you're both still gracious enough to indulge me. As I said, if I could buy you both a drink of your choice I would.

I want to thank you both again for all of your help these last few days. I truly appreciate all of your input more than you can imagine.

An update: at hour 45 and a half, I simply stopped dd_rescue altogether. The only sector information I noticed had changed in nearly two days was the number of bad sectors on the drive. Upon stopping the program, I ran pdisk -l /dev/sdb to see if anything had transferred, and the program reported that all 15 partitions had been moved. Thinking that the drive had to have been at least partially restored, I put it in the Tivo, started it up, and sure enough--Welcome, Powering Up--Almost There--GSOD--reboot. Again and again and again.

At this point, after three days of trying to get this drive back, I need (for sanity's sake) to stop trying. I'm going to wait until each of the drives, and the computer I was using to do the recovery, cool down...about three or four days...before I try again. The next attempt is the deal-breaker: if I can't get the information off the dying 1TB, and can't get the new 1TB to work, I'm simply going to clone the image of my 500GB drive (my first Tivo upgrade) to the new 1TB and admit defeat. An unbelievable amount of information, including a television series that will probably NEVER see the light of day on DVD because of Dick Wolf's licensing nonsense, will be lost, but I guess it serves me right for not actually backing up an image of the drive while it was working.

For now, I need to sleep, but I really want to thank you both again for all of the help. I'll be back at the end of the week if you're both still gracious enough to indulge me. As I said, if I could buy you both a drink of your choice I would.

What

pdisk

showed you was that the partition map had been copied.

That doesn't mean that the actual partitions had been.

Did you upgrade from the 40GB to the 500 and then from the 500 to the 1TB?